By Luke Voogt
Geelong Superintendent Craig Gillard has welcomed 10 extra frontline police for the region as part of a State Government announcement on Wednesday.
“It’s a fantastic outcome for Geelong,” he said.
“It’s a great show of support from our chief commissioner and government.”
“It’s dearly needed here and it’s going to increase our capability to provide an enhanced policing service for the community.”
Supt Gillard was unable to detail how many officers each station in Geelong would receive or how he would deploy them at “this early stage”.
He said he would analyse factors such as infrastructure, crime statistics and police workloads before allocating the officers.
“From the outset, you’ll see a rise in uniform police presence and response. It will help our people who are on the ground at the moment.”
But local coalition MP Simon Ramsay said Geelong needed a much greater boost to combat rising crime rates.
“My expectation talking to local police was that there would be significantly more allocated to the Geelong region,” the Western Victoria MP said.
“An allocation of 10 out of 300 in Victoria’s second largest city is not enough to give the police response that the community would expect.”
Mr Ramsay welcomed the State Government’s commitment to introducing frontline officers and acknowledged the Geelong allocation was likely to have been a Victoria Police Command decision.
But fellow coalition MP Andrew Katos said Police Minister Lisa Neville could have ensured a greater number would be based in Geelong.
The South Barwon MP cited the State Government’s $7.8 million for 15 sworn police in Geelong and the Bellarine in the 2015-16 Victorian Budget.
“When it was for her own electorate she was happy to intervene,” he said.
“Corio and Geelong on their own could do with an extra 10 officers and that would still not be enough.”
The State Government announced the 10 extra officers on Wednesday as part of 300 more police for Victoria.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Police Minister Lisa Neville joined Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton on Wednesday to announce the roll out, which will commence next month.
Ms Neville said the State Government would introduce 3135 additional police officers over five years.
“The roll out of 300 new police is just the start of the biggest boost of police resources in the state’s history.
“More police out on our streets will have a real impact on local communities as they work to prevent, detect and disrupt crime.”
